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The Art of the Graphic Memoir: Tell Your Story, Change Your Life
#1 New York Times bestselling author and Eisner-nominated cartoonist Tom Hart has written a poignant and instructive guide for all aspiring graphic memoirists detailing the tenets of artistry and story-telling inherent in the medium. Hart examines what makes a graphic memoir great, and shows you how to do it. With two dozen professional examples and a deep-dive into his own story, Hart encourages readers to hone their signature style in the best way to represent their journeys on the page.
With clear examples and visual aids, The Art of the Graphic Memoir is emotive, creative, and accessible. Whether you're a comics fan, comic book creator, memoirist, biographer or autobiographer, there’s something inside for everyone.
With clear examples and visual aids, The Art of the Graphic Memoir is emotive, creative, and accessible. Whether you're a comics fan, comic book creator, memoirist, biographer or autobiographer, there’s something inside for everyone.
176 pages, Paperback
First published November 6, 2018
29 people are currently reading
305 people want to read
About the author
Tom Hart
74 books86 followersTom Hart is a critically acclaimed Eisner-nominated cartoonist and the Executive Director of The Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW) in Gainesville, Florida.
He is the creator of Daddy Lightning, and the Hutch Owen series of graphic novels and books.
The Collected Hutch Owen was nominated for best graphic novel in 2000. He won a Xeric Grant for self-publishing cartoonists.
He teaches sequential art at SAW and at the University of Florida and taught at NYC's School of Visual Arts for 10 years.
He is the creator of Daddy Lightning, and the Hutch Owen series of graphic novels and books.
The Collected Hutch Owen was nominated for best graphic novel in 2000. He won a Xeric Grant for self-publishing cartoonists.
He teaches sequential art at SAW and at the University of Florida and taught at NYC's School of Visual Arts for 10 years.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
November 11, 2018
A three star book but I gave it four because the topic holds so much interest to me. More than anything, this was a great resource to find excellent graphic memoirs that I'd never heard of but now really want to read. I definitely picked up some good tips and suggestions that I want to try with my own graphic memoir (currently 24 pages drawn). I also appreciated the encouragement that writing one's memoir in comics form is a valid use of time.
March 15, 2019
I think I expected this book to be much more like McCloud, only drilled down deeply into comics as memoir--the form, the theory, the history, and so on. It's not quite that, and is not quite as much of what I was looking for, but that's okay. This book is much more of a guide, a path, a course--filled with techniques, and discussions of masters of the form, and step-by-step activities designed to help in the creation of a graphic memoir. If I were an illustrator, and/or about to start a graphic memoir project in earnest, this book would be very helpful. As it is, it is still valuable reading, and despite its status as a demi-textbook, it's quite moving, really. Tom Hart frames his lessons in graphic memoir creation around his own work writing through the sudden death of his young daughter, a project that culminated in ROSALIE LIGHTNING (which I hope to read soon). In his exploration the craft, he brings in critical analyses of the works of Bechdel, Spiegelmann, Eisner, Chast, and many others I've not heard of and whose graphic memoirs I intend to seek out. At its heart, this book makes a strong case for the transformative and necessary act of writing through our experiences--positive or negative--to more fully understand and internalize them.
April 19, 2019
Intriguing and inspiring.
January 10, 2021
OKAY this was REALLY cool. I have always been a “creative” and have envisioned doing something like this for ages.
I loved how professionally this was done — and how it gave SO many examples with a side-by-side of a real-life graphic novel.
But back to the professionalism / seriousness... a part of me was expecting this book to be about “ha ha making a graphic novel is only for silly people who have lots of time on their hands!! 😄”
but he describes how even if the book is “silly” how much emotional DEPTH, effort, planning it takes.. that it isn’t just a goofy job, but in fact a very serious one.
AND how it is absolutely life changing it is to do. The power of telling your story, and taking the time to DEEPLY analyze the story in BOTH visual and text form, was really inspiring and made me feel less “silly” for having this idea in the back of my mind.
The analysis of dozens and dozens of different examples of published graphic novels made things so much more interesting and clear. Understanding which choices they made, and WHY, they were made (regarding their illustration style, the chosen color schemes, the way the text is added, etc.) was mind blowing. I LOVE graphic novels and already had a pre-existing appreciation for them, but even more so after this book.
I also loveddddd the ending, and how he gives example timelines for creating your own, check in questions to ask yourself along the way, brainstorming questions, etc.
I loved how professionally this was done — and how it gave SO many examples with a side-by-side of a real-life graphic novel.
But back to the professionalism / seriousness... a part of me was expecting this book to be about “ha ha making a graphic novel is only for silly people who have lots of time on their hands!! 😄”
but he describes how even if the book is “silly” how much emotional DEPTH, effort, planning it takes.. that it isn’t just a goofy job, but in fact a very serious one.
AND how it is absolutely life changing it is to do. The power of telling your story, and taking the time to DEEPLY analyze the story in BOTH visual and text form, was really inspiring and made me feel less “silly” for having this idea in the back of my mind.
The analysis of dozens and dozens of different examples of published graphic novels made things so much more interesting and clear. Understanding which choices they made, and WHY, they were made (regarding their illustration style, the chosen color schemes, the way the text is added, etc.) was mind blowing. I LOVE graphic novels and already had a pre-existing appreciation for them, but even more so after this book.
I also loveddddd the ending, and how he gives example timelines for creating your own, check in questions to ask yourself along the way, brainstorming questions, etc.
April 7, 2022
A great reference book to help guide you through the process of creating a graphic novel. Ideas, drawings, perspectives, plot and subject - it has lots of great suggestions and examples from other graphic novels, as well as things & authors to explore and tons of exercises to get you on track. A great book to have on your shelf for reference!
February 19, 2019
A valuable addition to the comics making process world!
July 9, 2019
This is such a full and personal resource on writing a graphic memoir with very personal insights and tips. Sharing of some other excellent writers is useful and inspiring. The notes on and sections from his memoir of his late daughter are beautiful and heartbreaking. It adds to his point that if you are writing it should matter and somehow change you. What is the point of the story? What are pivotal moments? Do they need words? Writing lots of words helps one to come up with an image.
It is dense with so much to take in, so it wasn't a fast read for me.
Lots of extremely useful suggestions such as gather more info than you think you need, and explore different styles are ones that I will use.
Maybe I'll do a short one such as he includes towards the end of this book.
Even if you don't plan on writing one, it's a great insight into how much WORK it actually is.
It is dense with so much to take in, so it wasn't a fast read for me.
Lots of extremely useful suggestions such as gather more info than you think you need, and explore different styles are ones that I will use.
Maybe I'll do a short one such as he includes towards the end of this book.
Even if you don't plan on writing one, it's a great insight into how much WORK it actually is.
December 19, 2019
I enjoyed reading this book and learning more about how graphic memoirs are made - not in the technical process, but in the deep reflection and growing that takes place when creating one. I enjoyed Rosalie Lightning written by Tom Hart and it was interesting to see his emotional and spiritual processes that helped him to develop his heartbreaking but growth projected graphic memoir. Appreciated the sections that encouraged other graphic memoirists (or aspiring) to try different activities to help frame one's thinking and development of their memoirs. I found this helpful for memoir writing in general, not just for creating graphic memoirs - although that would be a format I'd love to try.
July 1, 2019
I read this because I teach a unit on graphic memoir in my senior English class, but really it’s more than a tutorial for those who want to attempt the form. Instead, I found Hart’s advice helpful for someone like me who’s looking to write more and needs a little inspiration for how to begin and to continue writing. I loved the way the book is set up as we follow Hart’s writing while also examining other published graphic memoirs. Lots of great ideas in here!
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May 16, 2025*The Art of the Graphic Memoir: Tell Your Story, Change Your Life* is a comprehensive and inspirational guide to creating personal narratives through the graphic memoir format. Combining memoir writing with the visual power of comics, the book walks readers through the process of translating their life experiences into compelling illustrated stories. It is both a practical manual and a creative companion for writers, artists, and anyone seeking to explore their past and shape it into meaningful art.
The author begins by emphasizing the transformative potential of memoir. Telling one’s story is not only a creative act but also a therapeutic one, allowing for reflection, healing, and deeper understanding of one’s identity. Graphic memoir, with its combination of words and images, offers a unique mode of expression—one that captures emotion, tone, and nuance in ways that words alone often cannot.
Early chapters focus on the foundations of memoir writing: identifying meaningful personal events, understanding emotional truths, and distinguishing between memory and narrative structure. The reader is encouraged to dig into their own experiences with honesty and vulnerability, finding the emotional core of the story they wish to tell.
The visual component is equally emphasized. The author breaks down essential techniques for visual storytelling, such as character design, page layout, pacing, and the use of visual metaphor. Importantly, artistic skill is not presented as a barrier—clarity of communication and emotional authenticity are prioritized over technical drawing ability. Even simple, raw sketches can powerfully convey meaning when integrated effectively with narrative.
Throughout the book, practical exercises help readers move from abstract memory to concrete panels. These activities include prompts for memory mining, thumbnail sketching, scene building, and dialogue development. Each is designed to unlock creativity and guide the artist-writer toward shaping their lived experience into a structured, visual form.
The book also addresses challenges specific to memoir creation: how to portray real people ethically, how to handle painful memories, and how to balance truth with storytelling needs. The author encourages sensitivity, responsibility, and self-awareness, reminding readers that their perspective is valid but must be handled with care and respect—especially when depicting others.
Examples from well-known graphic memoirists are woven throughout the text, offering inspiration and illustrating the range and depth the genre can achieve. These references serve not to intimidate, but to demonstrate the diverse ways stories can be told through words and pictures—whether with humor, sorrow, hope, or grit.
By the end, the book serves not only as a how-to guide but also as a call to action. It affirms that everyone’s story matters and that telling it through graphic memoir can be a powerful act of self-definition and connection with others. Whether readers are seasoned artists or beginners, the message is clear: the act of creating a graphic memoir can change how one sees their past—and potentially change their life.
The author begins by emphasizing the transformative potential of memoir. Telling one’s story is not only a creative act but also a therapeutic one, allowing for reflection, healing, and deeper understanding of one’s identity. Graphic memoir, with its combination of words and images, offers a unique mode of expression—one that captures emotion, tone, and nuance in ways that words alone often cannot.
Early chapters focus on the foundations of memoir writing: identifying meaningful personal events, understanding emotional truths, and distinguishing between memory and narrative structure. The reader is encouraged to dig into their own experiences with honesty and vulnerability, finding the emotional core of the story they wish to tell.
The visual component is equally emphasized. The author breaks down essential techniques for visual storytelling, such as character design, page layout, pacing, and the use of visual metaphor. Importantly, artistic skill is not presented as a barrier—clarity of communication and emotional authenticity are prioritized over technical drawing ability. Even simple, raw sketches can powerfully convey meaning when integrated effectively with narrative.
Throughout the book, practical exercises help readers move from abstract memory to concrete panels. These activities include prompts for memory mining, thumbnail sketching, scene building, and dialogue development. Each is designed to unlock creativity and guide the artist-writer toward shaping their lived experience into a structured, visual form.
The book also addresses challenges specific to memoir creation: how to portray real people ethically, how to handle painful memories, and how to balance truth with storytelling needs. The author encourages sensitivity, responsibility, and self-awareness, reminding readers that their perspective is valid but must be handled with care and respect—especially when depicting others.
Examples from well-known graphic memoirists are woven throughout the text, offering inspiration and illustrating the range and depth the genre can achieve. These references serve not to intimidate, but to demonstrate the diverse ways stories can be told through words and pictures—whether with humor, sorrow, hope, or grit.
By the end, the book serves not only as a how-to guide but also as a call to action. It affirms that everyone’s story matters and that telling it through graphic memoir can be a powerful act of self-definition and connection with others. Whether readers are seasoned artists or beginners, the message is clear: the act of creating a graphic memoir can change how one sees their past—and potentially change their life.
March 18, 2019
I thought this book was excellent at showing someone how to start a project to write their own memoirs. Making lists, gathering materials, trying out ideas, and other exercises get you started.
The middle of the book lost its momentum as it tried to describe the artwork of comics or graphic novels. Many times I could not correlate the text description with the illustrations. In all, I think the book fails to really give practical instruction on the use of art to tell the story which is what was promised. It does give a lot of examples of other artist work, So much so that there seems to be another agenda here instead of the stated goal to explain how the art conveys information for the story.
Also it was very ambiguous as to whether the author was encouraging writing memoirs as a professional effort or as journaling and introspection. One could argue that you write the book for yourself and hope it sells, but I don’t think that’s realistic. Perhaps that’s why the graphic section fell short. If you’re writing as a journalistic exercise you can include symbolism that mean something to your self and to your own experience. But if you are writing for the general public you need to use symbolism that is known to your target market whether that is a certain age, people of a certain experience, etc. there is a huge difference between writing for your self and drawing for yourself versus for others.
The ending includes a story which has been referred to throughout the book which was a nice way to illustrate the concepts given.
All in all, I think this is a really good book to get started on developing your own graphic memoir whether you want to tell your whole life story or just bits and pieces of your life.
The middle of the book lost its momentum as it tried to describe the artwork of comics or graphic novels. Many times I could not correlate the text description with the illustrations. In all, I think the book fails to really give practical instruction on the use of art to tell the story which is what was promised. It does give a lot of examples of other artist work, So much so that there seems to be another agenda here instead of the stated goal to explain how the art conveys information for the story.
Also it was very ambiguous as to whether the author was encouraging writing memoirs as a professional effort or as journaling and introspection. One could argue that you write the book for yourself and hope it sells, but I don’t think that’s realistic. Perhaps that’s why the graphic section fell short. If you’re writing as a journalistic exercise you can include symbolism that mean something to your self and to your own experience. But if you are writing for the general public you need to use symbolism that is known to your target market whether that is a certain age, people of a certain experience, etc. there is a huge difference between writing for your self and drawing for yourself versus for others.
The ending includes a story which has been referred to throughout the book which was a nice way to illustrate the concepts given.
All in all, I think this is a really good book to get started on developing your own graphic memoir whether you want to tell your whole life story or just bits and pieces of your life.
October 22, 2021
In The Art of the Graphic Memoir, cartoonist Tom Hart writes a lovely, illuminating short course on what makes an effective graphic memoir, using examples from a variety of luminaries in the field and his own work. Graphic memoirs were what sparked my interest in comics and graphic novels, and I find them to be among the most interesting uses of the form. I have often felt that, if I were to attempt a writing project involving autobiographical elements from my own life, I would love to try comics, in spite of my lack of artistic talent.
Hart examines many elements of how to frame and organize your story for effective use of the medium, with each chapter beginning by examining the work of some prominent artists in the genre before using his own experience to help the reader sketch out some of their own ideas. There was a lot of inspirational advice and strategies here, though as someone with only rudimentary ideas of drawing, line work, and the more technical work of cartooning, this would probably be a more advanced work for me as I start developing my craft.
I still found it a valuable learning experience, in particular watching how Hart wrote for his own memoir comic, Rosalie Lightning, a heartbreaking work that might be too harrowing for me to visit currently.
Hart examines many elements of how to frame and organize your story for effective use of the medium, with each chapter beginning by examining the work of some prominent artists in the genre before using his own experience to help the reader sketch out some of their own ideas. There was a lot of inspirational advice and strategies here, though as someone with only rudimentary ideas of drawing, line work, and the more technical work of cartooning, this would probably be a more advanced work for me as I start developing my craft.
I still found it a valuable learning experience, in particular watching how Hart wrote for his own memoir comic, Rosalie Lightning, a heartbreaking work that might be too harrowing for me to visit currently.
October 27, 2019
1) Accomplished
2) Ingenious
3) I think this process really could "change your life"!
Enjoyment: 3
"Through the process of writing and drawing our story, we can understand ourselves, communicate with parts of ourselves, and sometimes find ourselves face-to-face with our own complexity. With our own largeness." -p.174
This is a special book. It's an instructional resource, but also something personal, sophisticated, and dense with experience and meaning. Hart offers ample examples from real works by other artists. At times some concepts need more discussion as presented principles are abstract. In taking the reader through the process of creation, at the end of each chapter Hart provides his own example in progress to concretize his lessons. This culminates in the completed graphic story that ends the book. Delightful and a display of labored love.
2) Ingenious
3) I think this process really could "change your life"!
Enjoyment: 3
"Through the process of writing and drawing our story, we can understand ourselves, communicate with parts of ourselves, and sometimes find ourselves face-to-face with our own complexity. With our own largeness." -p.174
This is a special book. It's an instructional resource, but also something personal, sophisticated, and dense with experience and meaning. Hart offers ample examples from real works by other artists. At times some concepts need more discussion as presented principles are abstract. In taking the reader through the process of creation, at the end of each chapter Hart provides his own example in progress to concretize his lessons. This culminates in the completed graphic story that ends the book. Delightful and a display of labored love.
October 15, 2023
If you have any inkling you might want to create your own graphic memoir get this book. It’s written in a clear, actionable style with plenty of inspiring examples. I tend to giddily buy a lot of “how-to” books which I un-giddily skim but never really dig into and do the work. For whatever reasons–the layout, the writing, my lack of inspiration, etc.–it all often seems so onerous. Well, after about 20 minutes of non-onerous reading, I was tasked to write down ideas for my memoir and ended up with 4 or 5 pages of bulleted ideas very quickly. These ideas could easily lead to, I dunno, maybe 20 or 30 pages of autobio comics (a graphic novel!, My own 7-volume In Search of Lost Time!, or maybe just a bunch of random pages to leave to my kids). The rest of the book guides how to bring these ideas to fruition in a compelling (and non-onerous!) way.
This is a rich and generous book.
This is a rich and generous book.
July 18, 2021
This book has great suggestions for marrying words to images, and how to tell a great story using both. The tip I loved the most and that I am trying out is to keep a reflection log on the stories you read and how they relate to the story you are creating. It makes you focus on your story on an ongoing basis.
January 19, 2023
A really good examination of how other comics artists have used style and technique to achieve what they want in their comics memoirs. Hart also includes examples from his own memoir, and discusses why he made the choices he made.
Great for both artists and readers, and a great resource to learn about some comics memoirs you might not have heard of.
Great for both artists and readers, and a great resource to learn about some comics memoirs you might not have heard of.
March 13, 2020
An incredible read on how to begin creating a graphic memoir. It doesn't cover much about drawing/composition/skills/etc., but the overall principles taught are enlightening.
*Some sexualized nude figures (one page)
*Some sexualized nude figures (one page)
April 14, 2020
This text has lots of exercises to give you ideas and practice. It's hard to read it without adding more books to your TBR pile, thanks to the wealth of examples provided.
October 7, 2021
I feel so much more prepared to start my graphic memoir now! This book has lots of great advice, tips, and exercises. A must-read for anyone interested in creating their own autobiographical comics.
January 30, 2022
Very grateful for this book and Hart’s human approach to education and art.
July 12, 2023
borrowed from the library but i’ll probably buy a copy for myself. it’s helpful and inspiring to those who have been meaning to do a graphic memoir like me.
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September 5, 2024Finish this a long time ago, can't remember it at all.
September 30, 2025
This is an essay with practical exercises and a collection of readings on the 'graphic memoir' genre. It was an inspiring starting point for further reading, as it includes a vast bibliography of other graphic memoirs of note, especially from the US, which I did not know about. Apart from that, it felt a little superficial, although the analysis of the author 's own book (the moving 'Rosalie Lightning'), how he structured it, and how he developed the idea, was touching and in-depth.
May 27, 2022
Exactly what I needed to get unstuck
Want to read
April 10, 2019A really good book but I didn't have the head space for it right now.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews